Harry Potter and the Enchanter's Heir
by Lily Itriwi
Summary: When a nine-lived enchanter travels across worlds in search of an heir, Harry finds himself mixed up in more magic and mayhem than even he knows how to deal with... A HPChrestomanci crossover
1. In which a headache is exceptionally stu

Harry Potter and the Enchanter's Heir

I really shouldn't be starting another fic – Tears of Flame is going slowly enough as it is – but I was re-reading Diana Wynne Jones's Chrestomanci series, and I just thought how brilliantly Harry could fit into all that and voila! This fic was born. For those not familiar with Diana Wynne Jones, you may find this chapter slightly bewildering. The Harry Potter characters will turn up in the next chapter, I promise! Don't give up on this fic yet.

Disclaimer – I own neither Cat Chant nor Harry Potter, or any of the respective worlds which belong variously to Diana Wynne Jones and J K Rowling

**Chapter 1 - In Which a Headache is Exceptionally Stubborn, and Cat Prepares for the Worst.**

            Cat Chant's job was giving him a headache. Cat was very busy and important, so it always gave him headaches, but this particular one had stubbornly taken up residence and was refusing to budge, however Cat cajoled, coaxed or threatened it.

            It was, perhaps, something to do with the fact he had died recently. Cat never felt at his best after a death – new lives did tend to itch so. But this life was much worse than normal. It fussed and ached and refused to settle down, which irritated Cat immensely. He thought that perhaps, since it was his last life, it was punishing him for his carelessness in losing the last eight, or maybe trying to remind him to be more careful with this one.

            Cat slumped on his desk, groaning. He couldn't often do this, as it wasn't, strictly speaking, the done thing for a personage of his stature, so he could never do it in polite company. Fortunately, his current company was merely a cantankerous ginger cat, so that was OK.

            Cat was tall and lean, with pale skin and long fair hair. His blue eyes were full of suppressed energy and his face was crammed with quiet stubbornness. The reason for Cat's particularly persistent headache was a rather thorny problem that he had been wrestling with, on and off, for years, but that his recent death had pushed to the forefront. Cat needed a successor.

            Cat was Chrestomanci, the only nine-lifed enchanter in existence. Indeed, that was the problem. The post could only be held by a nine-lifed enchanter, and there simply wasn't one. The nearest Cat could find was a six-lifed sorceress in Surrey. But that was no good. Six lives and the power that went with them simply wasn't enough to watch over all the magic in the world, and ensure no one was doing harm with it.

            Cat worried absentmindedly at his new life. He missed the comforting feel of his last life, which he had lost in an unfortunate incident involving a tiger, a forest fire and a catering size jar of mayonnaise. It gave his problem a large degree of urgency, being on his last life – he needed to find and train his replacement before he died, and from pat experience, he knew that once he got going he tended to lose lives at a rate of knots. 

            Cat mentally reprimanded himself for fussing at his new life, and gave a sigh of resignation. It was no good. He'd postponed and procrastinated for years, with a vague hope that a nine-lifed enchanter would turn up in the world sooner or later. After all, he'd taken some finding. But somehow he'd always known it would come to this. World travel.

            Cat had a strong dislike of world travel, due to an unfortunate incident in his youth where his sister, his only close living relation, had world-jumped, after giving Cat as a human sacrifice to a group of villains and rogues seeking to destroy the previous Chrestomanci. Gwendolyn had been vindictive and spiteful, and Cat knew that the world was better off without her, but the experience had left him jaded, with a cautious and guarded approach to world-jumping that, if he was honest with himself, came partially from the slight lingering fear that he would meet Gwendolyn, in whatever world she had made her way into.

            Now, perhaps, would be a good opportunity to explain the theory of the Related Worlds. There are twelve of them, all speaking the same languages, although actually there are more than that because each world is really a set of nine worlds, called a series. The only one which is a single world is Eleven, but we needn't go into that. It is thought among experts that all the worlds were once one world but then, back in prehistory, something happened which could have ended in two ways, both completely different – say a continent blew up, or didn't blow up. The two things couldn't both be true in the same world, so another world split off from the first one and the one world became two worlds, side by side but quite separate, one with that continent and one without. And so on, until there were twelve.

            Series happen in a similar way. Take series Seven, which is a mountainous series. In prehistory, the Earth's crust buckled more than in this world. Or series Five, which is full of islands no larger than France. These are the same right across the series, but the history of each world is quite, quite different. The easiest example, perhaps, is Cat's series, series Twelve. Cat's world, World A, is orientated on magic, which is usual for most worlds. But World B split off in the fourteenth century and turned to science and machinery. World C, the next world along, split off in even earlier, in Roman times, and became divided into large empires. And World G, which we have more than a passing interest in, split off from World A far more recently, after the witch burnings of the seventeenth century, where the magic users of World A created the post of Chrestomanci, to protect non-magic users from magic and vice versa, while still being able to use magic openly, whereas in World G, the witches and wizards hid themselves from non-magic users, and allowed themselves to become fairytales and bedtime stories.

            But anyway, back to Cat. He had, by this time, resigned himself to the inevitable. He raised two fingers to his mouth, unfocused his eyes as he called on his power, and gave an ear-piercing whistle. Cat was very proud of this ability, and never failed to take an opportunity to use it, particularly as it annoyed the staff so. For example, his assistant Karami Malone, who had appeared upon his whistle, fixed him with an exasperated look.

            "Really, Chrestomanci, sir, do you absolutely have to call us by whistling like that? It gets my nerves all ajitter, and it does tend to set off the cats, caterwauling and carrying on."

            Cat fixed her with a solemn stare and nodded gravely, saying, "My dear, it is the only way."

            Karami had flyaway hair, a button nose and a plump, motherly air about her. She had no magic herself, unusually among the castle staff, but her organisational skill and sheer ingenuity made up for that amply.

            "Now, what was it you wanted, sir? I was right in the middle of drafting that letter to Lord Dorchester about the hemlock."

            "My dear Karami, I'm afraid I will be away for quite some time. Kindly cancel my engagements for the next two weeks. I'll leave the castle in your capable hands. Please try to keep Janet under control, and make sure the hordes of Montana children, bless their dimples and dolls, aren't underfoot in the kitchen. Whenever they go in there, everything seems to come out tasting of nothing but cinnamon."

            "Cancel your engagements, Chrestomanci? What, even the Minister?"

            "It cannot be helped, my dear. I must take a trip through the series. If anything vital comes up, just call."

            "Through the series? Don't you normally send Janet or Dr Itriwi on that kind of thing? The Minister's been most difficult recently. It took me the best part of a month to get him to agree to meet you."

            "Well, you'll just have to spend another month rearranging it, Karami. It must be me to go this time. I've been putting it off for long enough as it is."


	2. In which Dumbledore is suspicious, Harry...

**Chapter 2 – In which Dumbledore is suspicious, Harry is resigned and Fawkes just preens**

Now, as I have stated before, the world in which we have a vested interest is World G of Series Seven, so I think I will gloss over the rather long and convoluted adventures Cat had in the rest of the series. Suffice it to say that Cat arrived in World G with several nasty bite marks, a small garden gnome and a lingering fear when in the presence of marmalade.

Cat had travelled from world to world, appearing before his equivalent in each, which had been a most interesting experience at times. He brushed himself off, and looked around the room he'd ended up in.

It was evidently an office, with a wide mahogany desk, curious silver instruments and chattering portraits. One of its occupants – a phoenix, Cat recognised – gazed at Cat inscrutably for a few seconds, before returning to his preening. The other, a white bearded old man in long sweeping robes had half risen from his chair, probably in surprise at this strange man appearing from nowhere in the middle of his office. He seemed to recover himself quickly, though, and he soon regained enough composure to ask politely who his visitor was, although he couldn't disguise the curiosity and suspicion in his eyes.

Cat didn't even have a chance to introduce himself before there came a knock on the door and a rather scrawny boy with messy black hair and a veritable torrent of power pouring off him entered the room.

"Professor Dumbledore?"

"Ah, Harry," said the ancient man. "If you'd excuse me for a moment while I attend to Mr…"

"Chrestomanci, just Chrestomanci. And I believe that it is Harry, did you say, that I must talk to you about."

"Oh?" The professor nodded at Harry to sit, though Cat's previous pronouncement seemed to have made him even more wary than before. "Exactly what is your business here, Mr Chrestomanci?"

"Please call me Chrestomanci. It's my official title. I am the supervisor of magic in World A of your series."

Professor Dumbledore almost choked on the sherbet lemon he was eating."You mean all that guff about the Related Worlds is actually true? I thought Rufus Ukenzi was merely making up waffle because his thesis on the Crumple Horned Snorkack wasn't bizarre enough to be believed."

"It's true, Professor. I monitor all magic users on World A to ensure those without such talents are protected."

Professor Dumbledore's puzzlement seemed only to increase with each further explanation Cat offered.

"So, Chrestomanci, if your job is so vital, what, exactly, are you doing here?"

"Ah. Of course. You must be finding this enigmatic to say the least. Well, in order to exert some degree of control over the combined masses of the magicians of World A, the post of Chrestomanci can only be held by an Enchanter of the highest degree of power. Nothing is sufficient other than a nine-lifed Enchanter. It was discovered I had nine lives at the age of eleven, and thereafter I lived at Chrestomanci Castle, training to replace the previous Chrestomanci. Unfortunately, I am now on my last life due to various misadventures we need not go into. Suffice it to say, I am in dire need of a successor."

Dumbledore smiled slightly, his light blue eyes twinkling for the first time in conversation.

"Another very successful evasion of the question, interesting though it was. But now can you please tell me why you appeared in my office."

Cat noticed that the boy, Harry, who had been very quiet throughout the conversation, was torn between amusement and awe at the spectacle of someone beating his professor at vagueness and dodging questions.

"Ah, now we come to it. The answer is that I cannot find a successor in World A. There is simply not a single nine-lifed Enchanter alive there. So therefore it stands to reason that one has been born in another of the worlds in the series. I have been travelling through them, searching for an heir, and my search has brought me here."

Harry spoke for the first time in the conversation as his curiosity won the battle over his politeness.

"But what has this to do with me? You said you were going to talk about me."

Cat smiled. "It's very simple, my boy. You are my successor – the only nine-lifed Enchanter – apart from me, of course – in the whole of Series Seven."

Harry's shocked gasp was drowned out by the professor's thundering roar of "WHAT!?!"

Completely ignoring the professor, Cat turned to Harry, who looked completely gobsmacked.

"Now, I think it's best if you begin your training as soon as possible – if you come back to World A with me…"

But Professor Dumbledore, incandescent with rage, wasn't having any of it.

"Absolutely out of the question!" Looking at Harry's slightly mutinous face, he admonished, "Harry, you're not considering this madness? What about Voldemort? The prophecy? Look, Mr Chrestomanci, that is completely impossible – Harry must remain here. He is the only person who has a hope of defeating the Dark Lord Voldemort who wages war against us."

"And what is he doing for the cause at the present? Training a little, waiting to grow up and handle it? He may as well do that at Chrestomanci Castle. And we can teach him something useful for a change. Poor Harry needs to learn Enchanter's magic, none of your messing about with wands and cauldrons and broomsticks, or he'll start dying all over the place. We'll train him up for a while, he can come back with a veritable army of weapons that your Voldemort character won't be able to comprehend, let alone defend against – it seems like a perfect solution for you."

Little did Chrestomanci know it, but a few unspoken words lingered in the silence between Albus Dumbledore and Harry Potter…

"He will have powers the Dark Lord knows not…"

Cat continued, blithely ignoring the mutinous look on Dumbledore's face.

"Honestly, there is really no option. Harry must be trained, or he'll be dead within a year or two. Untrained Enchanters lose lives with an astonishing speed. I'm surprised Harry has only lost three to this point."

Dumbledore looked almost resigned, but was not prepared to give in without a fight.

"What about Ron? Hermione? Hagrid? You'll be leaving everyone and everything you know, probably for years. Is that what you want, Harry?"

Harry was now looking very shaken up and thoroughly miserable, but shrugged sadly.

"Professor, what choice do I have? If it will give me any kind of advantage over Voldemort, I have to do it. And if it's true about losing lives…"

Chrestomanci beamed at the despondent pair.

"That's settled then. Harry, if you want to pack your things and say goodbye to your friends, we'll be on our way."


End file.
